Item Summary

Historic preservation could easily contend for a position on the list of the most misunderstood terms in the English language. To many Americans, historic preservation suggests a return to the past while denying the present. Preservationists are reactionaries--people who are 100% anti-change. A stereotypical preservationist is an aloof sixty-year-old female curator wagging her finger to “look, but don’t touch!” Historic preservation means saving old buildings. The first three assumptions above are false and the last statement is only a partial truth. Historic preservation is much more than saving old buildings. Over the past six decades historic preservation has evolved into an organized, complicated field of endeavor. People never before involved in such work actively pursue its goals. Yet for each of these individuals there are numerous others who have never experienced preservation efforts, or even worse, have felt its effects, but do not link the influence as that of historic preservation because of misinformation or misconceptions. Although the preservation movement in America has made remarkable strides towards making preservation a household word, I suggest the term is still not as properly understood as we preservationists would like it to be, nor does the movement have majority support of the population on its issues.

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